Forty Under 40

Travis Smith, 37

Chief operating officer,
Jo-Ann Stores, Inc.

Travis Smith's ancestors traveled the Oregon Trail and homesteaded on a ranch that remains in the family today.

In 2006, Mr. Smith, a fifth-generation Oregonian who grew up in Portland, brought his branch of the family tree back east to Hudson when he joined Jo-Ann Stores Inc. as executive vice president of merchandising and marketing. He was promoted to chief operating officer last February.

The journey, he admits, has had its own share of twists and turns.

Mr. Smith, a 1995 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, had accepted a position with a giant consulting firm in Chicago prior to earning his bachelor's degree in business marketing and communication. At home for Christmas break during his senior year, though, he interviewed for — and soon after accepted — a buyer's position at a Portland division of The May Department Stores Co.

“I still couldn't clean my room, my mom bought my clothes, and I was going to a department store as a buyer,” Mr. Smith recalled, laughing. But being a decision-maker, he said, had an appeal like that of running his own business, and he jumped at the chance.

In 1998, he joined the Portland-based Fred Meyer store chain, shortly before it merged with Cincinnati's Kroger stores. While overseeing all the company's non-food merchandising, he worked under Fred Meyer's then-president, Darrell Webb.

Soon after Mr. Webb was hired as Jo-Ann's president, chairman and CEO in July 2006, Mr. Smith was aboard as well.

Having dealt over the course of his career with everything from intimate apparel to lawn-and- garden equipment, Mr. Smith said he has learned more than his share of lessons in retail. From a certain perspective, he noted, “an oil can is the same as a velour bolt of fabric.

“In retail, you get a report card every morning: the sales for the prior day,” he said. “You're only as good as you were the day before.”

Mr. Smith and his wife, Debbie, have been married 11 years and have three children: a daughter, Ella, age 8; and two sons, Bennett, 5; and 4-year-old Brady.